Tuesday, August 28, 2012

The Sacramento-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation has been tracking the impact of Governor Brown’s Realignment Law (AB109) since it took effect in October 2011. Under Realignment, inmates who are classified as nonserious, nonviolent, and nonsexual offenders are sent to local jails instead of California state prisons or put under community supervision. However, these Post-Release Community Supervision inmates (PRCS) could have prior convictions for murder or sexual offenses as long as their most recent conviction was for a nonserious, nonviolent, and nonsexual crime.

LAPD Sgt. Jeff Nuttall states, “Some of the people who are on this program are absolutely dangerous career criminals.” (Daily News, April 21).

In fact, one prisoner who was segregated in a secure housing unit in Pelican Bay, where the state’s worst criminals are incarcerated, was put on probation through California’s Realignment. (Daily Bulletin, July 22).

According to the minutes of a recent Los Angeles county meeting on Realignment, “Thus far, over 7000 inmates released. 4227 (about half of those released) have been screened. Of the 4227, 2692 showed at the assessment center for a full AOD assessment (63.6%). Of those assessed, 1176 (43.7%) were referred to treatment and of those 545 (46.3%) have shown to treatment. So, looking at the overall numbers, of the more than 7000 released, 545 have entered treatment for AOD (less than 8%).”

“This means that less than half of the offenders referred to programs are even showing up,” said Foundation president Michael Rushford.

In San Francisco, there are 306 inmates who were released under PRCS. On average, each of them has been previously convicted of eight felonies, and more than half convicted of violent, sexual, or weapons-related offenses. San Francisco Adult Probation Chief Stills said, “the population is high-risk with high needs.” (SF Gate, July 16).

Carl Landry, a San Bernardino Probation Department supervisor, said that there is an increased number of high-level or leading gang members which have been released as a result of AB109. (Daily Bulletin, July 22).

In Lancaster, more than 300 offenders were released under partial supervision to Los Angeles probation officers since Realignment began. Nearly 200 of these offenders have been rearrested for new crimes or charges. (Los Angeles Times, July 26).

From October 2011 to July 2012, 3054 offenders were released into PRCS in San Bernardino. Of that number, 606 of them have been rearrested for new offenses, consisting of 489 felonies and 117 misdemeanors. Another 5 percent were re-incarcerated for technical probation violations. (Daily Press, July 3).

Hesperia Capt. Steve Higgins said, “Of the 88 burglaries committed since 2011,...49 of them were committed by four people — two of whom were PRCS probationers. And of those 49, he said nearly 30 burglaries can be linked back to one PRCS probationer.” (Daily Press, July 3)Scott Herman, a sex offender from Santa Rosa, violated the terms of his parole within two weeks of being released under AB109. He was found by his parole officer following young girls around and behaving suggestively in a Walmart. He has been convicted of indecent exposure and molesting children six times (including parole violations) since 1996. Rather than serving his full one-year sentence in a California prison, he served only two and a half months in the Sonoma County Jail. (AB 109’s Most Wanted, Assembly Republican Caucus).Beyond having dangerous offenders in California’s communities, there has also been an undeniable increase in overall crime in the state, including violent and property crime, in such cities as Fresno, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Lancaster, San Francisco, Redding, Chico, Antioch, and in Kern County.

On January 11, the Lead Type reported that from 2010 to 2011, overall crime in Los Angeles County patrolled by Sheriffs decreased by 4.25%, 13.81% decline in violent crimes, and 1.81% decline in serious property crimes. However, in a year-to-date comparison of July 31 of 2011 to 2012 in Los Angeles, violent crimes are up by 4.91%, from 7426 to 7791, and property crimes are up by 6.07%, from 31,853 to 33,787.

The Lancaster Sheriff’s Department reported “that violent crimes, which include murder, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault, increased by 16% in Lancaster during the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2011. Homicides increased from four murders to eight.” (Los Angeles Times, July 26).

According to San Francisco Police Commander John Loftus, the city had seen a 16% increase in burglaries and 12% rise in stolen vehicles as of the end of June. Many of the arrests in those cases were offenders released by AB109. (SF Gate, July 16).

Lt. Jennifer Gonzales of the Chico Police Department said, “criminals know the charges that will keep them out of prison and sometimes jail so they will take the risk and commit the offense.” (Chico Enterprise-Record, July 26).

Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando told the City Council in July that all crimes in the first 6 months of 2012, compared to 2011, are up. Property crimes have increased from 1,566 in 2011 to 2,487 in 2012, and violent crimes have increased 45.6% primarily due to aggravated assaults. (Contra Costa Times, July 24).

Redding Police Chief Robert Paoletti says that between January and May, the crime rate went up 43% in 2012 in comparison with 2011. According to the Redding Police Department, the top 15 realigned offenders have been arrested 269 times for crimes, including burglary, theft, trespassing, public intoxication, and parole violations. (Redding Record Searchlight, July 21).

Since AB 109 went into effect, property crimes in Fresno have been on the rise and violent crimes have increased in the city. (ABC Local, July 17). Sheriff Margaret Mims of Fresno County said that law enforcement officials “say people engaging in nonviolent offenses like property crime no longer fear being sent to prison.” (The New York Times, August 5).

Through July 2012, Fresno’s homicides were already at 32, only 3 short from the 35 total homicides in 2011. Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer explains that because jails have become overcrowded since AB 109 took effect, gang members, who are responsible for a majority of Fresno’s murders this year, are not serving very much of their sentences before being released into community supervision. (CBS47, July 17).

For example, one of Fresno’s top five car thieves, Tino Tufono, has been in and out of jail more than a dozen times in the last year because car theft no longer carries a state prison sentence, allowing for Tufono’s early release. Weeks after being put on PRCS, he became a leading suspect in a Fresno murder. He was considered a threat to civilians and officers during a citywide manhunt leading to his arrest. (AB 109’s Most Wanted, Assembly Republican Caucus).

Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said, “This misinformation that’s out there that the downsizing of the prison population only impacts those that are non-violent, non-serious is not serious. We’ve already had three murders over the past two months that are individuals under re-alignment.” (ABC Local, July 17).

In Oakland, homicides may be on track for an increase. In 2011, Oakland had a total of 110 homicides. By August, 2012, the city already had 75. (Harry Harris Oakland Tribune, August 20).

In Hesperia, probationer Jose Luis Lopez and parolee Carlos Santos Montenegro, both with repeat arrests and on PRCS, were arrested after shooting into a home and a pursuit which ended in officers ramming their patrol unit into their vehicle. Both face charges of attempted murder. (San Bernardino County Sun, July 11).

One Hesperia offender, Samuel Ray Castellanos, on PRCS for prior convictions of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse, burglary, and several drug offenses, was arrested for allegedly assaulting and car jacking a man. (Daily Bulletin, July 22).

Theft rates have also shown an overall increase since realignment, with police focusing on serious offenders rather than thieves. (Contra Costa Times, July 24).

Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims said that even though an inmate’s “current charge might be a burglary, something that’s considered non-violent, . . . those are the kinds of crimes that cause the most problems with our public, especially when they’re happening over and over again.” (ABC Local, July 17).

Data provided by San Bernardino County Sheriffs shows burglaries in the county have significantly increased. The city of Hesperia suffered the largest increase with 56%, going from 158 burglaries by April 2011 to 246 by April 2012. (Daily Press, July 3).

Two former state prison inmates, a parolee and a Realignment release prisoner, are suspected in the shooting death of a 16-year-old boy in Richmond on August 4. One suspect, parolee Jacob Stevens, is currently in custody. The other, Matthew John Capanis, surrendered August 8. Capanis has a lengthy history of weapons violations, but his most recent arrest was for spousal abuse—considered a minor, nonviolent offense—which is why he was free under Realignment despite his history. (SF Chronicle, August 8 & Pacovilla corrections blog, August 8).

“The Realignment law is causing the injury and death of innocent Californians. The Legislature should repeal it before things get even worse,” said Rushford.

The Republican vice-presidential candidate, Congressman Paul Ryan, is the Democrats’ political version of the Antichrist. He believes in self-reliance; the Left believes in reliance on the state. His moral values are shaped by religion (Catholicism); the Left is frightened by religious Christian politicians (and athletes, and members of the armed forces, and talk-show hosts, and, for that matter, clergy). He believes in individualism; the Left believes in collectivism. He believes in small government and powerful citizens; the Left believes in large government and dependent citizens.

Nevertheless, the Democratic party claims to be overjoyed at his selection as the Republican vice-presidential nominee.

The Democrats’ glee — even if exaggerated — emanates from their belief that Americans will reject Ryan’s economic and social plans to reduce the American debt, unleash private economic growth (the only type there is), and reform unsustainable government programs such as Medicare.

Democrats believe that if Americans perceive that their entitlements may be affected — even if only beginning a decade from now, and even if the American debt is thereby cut by one-third, and even if they, as well as the country, will ultimately benefit — so many Americans have become so used to government benefits, the Republicans stand little chance of winning the upcoming elections.

In other words, and tragically, the Left and Democrats are relying on the decline of character that left-wing policies have produced (not only here but in Latin America, Europe, and everywhere else). The Democrats are hoping that older Americans are (irrationally) frightened by Medicare reform even though it will not affect them, and that younger Americans will likewise reject it because they are counting on receiving Medicare as it now exists.

Left-wing social policies are predicated on giving more and more Americans more and more benefits and demanding less and less from them.

The Left’s party, the Democratic party, seeks to have the state pay for Americans’ health care, give record numbers of Americans food stamps (now in a form similar to ATM and credit cards so that no stigma be involved), provide their children with school meals, and provide women with child care and contraceptives, while enabling more and more Americans to pay no federal taxes to pay for any of these benefits.

The negative impact these policies have had on the character of Americans is indisputable. Every parent — and probably almost every adult who is not a parent — knows what giving children things they have not earned, and demanding nothing from them in return, produces: spoiled children.

Left-wing, Democratic-party policies have negatively impacted the American character in another way. Whenever possible, the Left and the Democrats have de-stigmatized irresponsible behavior.

One example is women who give birth to and raise children without fathers in their children’s lives. This past Sunday’s New York Times opinion section featured another attack on those who stigmatize out-of-wedlock birth and single motherhood.

Another example is the cultural Left’s glorification of graffiti — once regarded as vandalism of public and private property — as “street art.”

A third example is how difficult the Democratic party and the left-wing education establishment have made it for teachers and principals to discipline disruptive and foul-mouthed students. The Department of Education has just declared education the “civil rights issue of our generation” because black students are disproportionately suspended and otherwise punished by school officials. The effect? Black young people who abuse their teachers and schools feel empowered to continue their antisocial behavior.

At the same time, the Left works to weaken the single most effective device for character-building in American history: Judeo-Christian religions. Increasingly the American motto “In God We Trust” has been replaced by “In Government We Trust” and “In Experts We Trust.”

Since the Democrats could not win any national election with the votes of liberals alone — according to Gallup, self-described liberals constitute just 21 percent of the electorate — the great question of the 2012 American presidential election is this: Have the Left and Democratic party sufficiently weakened the character of enough Americans to enable the demonization of Paul Ryan to lead Barack Obama to victory?

I don’t believe so. But given the enormity of the national debt incurred by this administration, its spectacular failure to improve the nation’s economy, and its commitment to weakening American defense, if there were a better explanation for a Democratic victory, I would welcome it.

Mychal Massie is a respected writer and talk show host in Los Angeles.

The other evening on my twitter, a person asked me why I didn't like the Obama's? Specifically I was asked: "I have to ask, why do you hate the Obama's? It seems personal, not policy related. You even dissed (disrespect) their Christmas family picture."

The truth is I do not like the Obamas, what they represent, their ideology, and I certainly do not like his policies and legislation. I've made no secret of my contempt for the Obamas. As I responded to the person who asked me the aforementioned question, I don't like them because they are committed to the fundamental change of my/our country into what can only be regarded as a Communist state.

I don't hate them per definition, but I condemn them because they are the worst kind of racialists, they are elitist Leninists with contempt for traditional America. They display disrespect for the sanctity of the office he holds, and for those who are willing to admit same, Michelle Obama's raw contempt for white America is transpicuous.

I don't like them because they comport themselves as emperor and empress. I expect, no I demand respect, for the Office of President and a love of our country and her citizenry from the leader entrusted with the governance of same. President and Mrs. Reagan displayed an unparalleled love for the country and her people. The Reagan's made Americans feel good about themselves and about what we could accomplish. His arrogance by appointing 32 leftist czars and constantly bypassing congress is impeachable. Eric Holder is probably the MOST incompetent and arrogant DOJ head to ever hold the job. Could you envision President Reagan instructing his Justice Department to act like jack-booted thugs?

Presidents are politicians and all politicians are known and pretty much expected to manipulate the truth, if not outright lie, but even using that low standard, the Obama's have taken lies, dishonesty, deceit, mendacity, subterfuge and obfuscation to new depths. They are verbally abusive to the citizenry, and they display an animus for civility.

I do not like them, because they both display bigotry overtly, as in the case of Harvard Professor Louis Gates, when he accused the Cambridge Police of acting stupidly, and her code speak pursuant to now being able to be proud of America. I view that statement and that mindset as an insult to those who died to provide a country where a Kenyan, his illegal alien relatives, and his alleged progeny, could come and not only live freely, but rise to the highest, most powerful, position in the world. Michelle Obama is free to hate and disparage whites because Americans of every description paid with their blood to ensure her right to do same.

I have a saying, that "the only reason a person hides things, is because they have something to hide." No president in history has spent millions of dollars to keep his records and his past sealed.

And what the two of them have shared has been proved to be lies. He lied about when and how they met, he lied about his mother's death and problems with insurance, Michelle lied to a crowd pursuant to nearly $500,000 bank stocks they inherited from his family. He has lied about his father's military service, about the civil rights movement, ad nausea. He lied to the world about the Supreme Court in a State of the Union address. He berated and publicly insulted a sitting Congressman. He has surrounded himself with the most rabidly, radical, socialist academicians today. He opposed rulings that protected women and children that even Planned Parenthood did not seek to support. He is openly hostile to business and aggressively hostile to I srael. His wife treats being the First Lady as her personal American Express Black Card (arguably the most prestigious credit card in the world). I condemn them because, as people are suffering, losing their homes, their jobs, their retirements, he and his family are arrogantly showing off their life of entitlement - as he goes about creating and fomenting class warfare.

I don't like them, and I neither apologize nor retreat from my public condemnation of them and of his policies. We should condemn them for the disrespect they show our people, for his willful and unconstitutional actions pursuant to obeying the Constitutional parameters he is bound by, and his willful disregard for Congressional authority.

Dislike for them has nothing to do with the color of their skin; it has everything to do with their behavior, attitudes, and policies. And I have open scorn for their constantly playing the race card.

It is my intention to do all within my ability to ensure their reign is one term. I could go on, but let me conclude with this. I condemn in the strongest possible terms the media for refusing to investigate them, as they did President Bush and President Clinton, and for refusing to label them for what they truly are. There is no scenario known to man, whereby a white president and his wife could ignore laws, flaunt their position, and lord over the people, as these two are permitted out of fear for their color.

As I wrote in a syndicated column titled, "Nero In The White House" - "Never in my life, inside or outside of politics, have I witnessed such dishonesty in a political leader. He is the most mendacious political figure I have ever witnessed. Even by the low standards of his presidential predecessors, his narcissistic, contumacious arrogance is unequalled. Using Obama as the bar, Nero would have to be elevated to sainthood... Many in America wanted to be proud when the first person of color was elected president, but instead, they have been witness to a congenital liar, a woman who has been ashamed of America her entire life, failed policies, intimidation, and a commonality hitherto not witnessed in political leaders. He and his wife view their life at our expense as an entitlement - while America's people go homeless, hungry and unemployed."